Lockable container.



R. J. MCBREEN.

LOCKABLE CONTAINER.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 14, ms.

Patented Oct. 15, 1918 ATTORNEY ATEg LOGKABLE CONTAINER.

Application filed March 14, 1918.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RAYMOND J. Mc- BnnEN, a citizen of the United States, residing in the borough of Brooklyn, city of New York, county of Kings, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Lockable Containers, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to lockable containers, and especially such as envelops, cartons and boxes of paper or like material. The object of the invention is to provide such structures with tongue-and-slot locks which can be readily opened and closed for inspection, and which at the same time are strong and secure.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating the principle of the invention in the best mode now known to me of applying that principle,

Figure 1 is a view of a box-like form of container with its cover flap open and provided with my new locking tongue. The View also shows one side of the container fprmed with a reinforced tongue-receiving s ot.

Fig. 2 shows the container closed.

Fig. 3 is a sectional detail at line 3-3 of Fig. 2, showing the locking members in coupled position.

Fig. 4 is a view showing my invention embodied in a mailing tube the wall of which is slit endwise to allow the tube to be opened.

Fig. 5 is an end view of what is shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a sectional detail at line 66 of Fig. 4: showing the tube locking members coupled.

Referring to the drawings, the coverforming or closing flap 1 of the container 2 is provided with a preferably integral extension 3 which is transversely connected at i to form a flexible resilient carrier for the locking tongue 5 the butt end of which is fastened at 6 to the free end of the extension 3. The tongue 5 is formed with reverse bends 7 and 8 between its fixed end and its free end 9 which extends forward of the forwardly projecting bend and forms the slot-entrant end of the tongue 7 The portion 10 of this tongue between the forwardly-projecting bend 7 and the bend 8 which projects toward the fixed end of the tongue, is spaced fiatwise apart from the fixed end portion 5 and the free end portion Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 15, 1918.

Serial No. 222,311.

9 of the tongue so that there are two open spaces 10 and 11 formed in the intermediate portion of the tongue, the space 10 opening toward the fixed, and space 11 toward the free, end of the tongue. The container wall is provided with a reinforced straight slot 12 for reception of the bent tongue which is made of sheet material.

In coupling the locking members the flap extension 3 is bent so as to dip the free end portion 9 of the tongue through the slit 12, the recess or space l0 then receiving the far edge and margin 13 of the slit 12; and, as the tongue is further manipulated in the assembling movement, permitting the bend 7 to pass inwardly through the slit, past the near edge 14 of the slit. The retraction of the corrugated, and thereby made resilient, flap extension, with or without aid from the finger then pulls the tongue space 11 over the near edge and margin 14 of the slit and holds the locking members coupled.

According to the present invention the locking tongue is given an automatic retractile movement by the transverse corrugations 4 conveniently formed in the material of flap 1. If the material is paper,.

such corrugations or accordion-plaits may be hot-pressed to give them a somewhat permanent resilient condition; and if the ma terial is of more or less resilient sheet metal as it may be for metallic containers, such metal may be corrugated. The extent or number of the corrugations mav be varied and the invention may be embodied in a wide range of containers from ordinary flat envelops of paper, paper cartons and boxes of various kinds, to sheet metal containers. The position of the corrugation or corrugations which put the interlocked tongue into a retractile condition may be varied.

In Figs. 4, 5 and 6, I show the invention embodied in a tube 15 which is slit endwise at 16 preferably with overlapping beveled margins as at 17. Such a tube is resilient and like the corrugated flap portion may be opened to facilitate movement of the locking tongue. Its natural resiliency causes it to close automatically. The tube is shown provided with the interlocking tongue and reinforced straight slit already described.

In both forms of the invention, the free end 9 of the locking tongue extends beyond the slit 12 and into opposition to the far margin of the slit, so that the tongue must be retracted in order to move into the position it must take before being entirely released from the slit.

Containers embodying this invention are very useful for transmission of matter by mail, express and otherwise, especially When they are of paper and liable to strains, jars, pressures, etc., as Well as for general uses.

What I claim is:

A container having opposable closing portions one of Which is resilient and provided With a pre-formed and stiff locking tongue, and the other of which is provided With a tongue-receiving slot; the tongue having between its ends tWo permanent bends the opposed Walls of which are, spaced apart to form the tongue With a slot-entrant end; an

adjacent slot-margin receiving-space opening in the'direction of the slot-entrant end; and a space opening toward the butt of thetongue for reception of that slot margin which is Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the. Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. 0. 

